By Archie Manners, a student and Conservative activist from Hampshire.
It was reported earlier this month that the odious Mr Blair has taken a ‘hoard’ of gifts that he received whilst Prime Minister to his next life. Whether these gifts are now available on eBay courtesy of Cherie I don’t know, but it was reported that he paid just £200 for a pair of ‘watches’ from Berlusconi. Either they were not very nice watches, or Blair was not very generous in his payback. His Premiership was clearly more colourful than John Terry’s private life, and revelations are still coming out.
However, there is a fresh start with the new Government on the issue of ‘gifts’. In this new ‘era’ of transparency, No. 10 has published lists of all of the gifts received by Cabinet, along with the pay and gifts received by special advisors. Even the webpage contains the word ‘transparency’ and it is refreshing that these are published – and will help to improve accountability.
Although lists have appeared for all of cabinet, including the Deputy Prime Minister, only the Prime Minister has received presents. Despite his ‘success’ at the Election, Nick Clegg has not declared any presents whatsoever: either that or they didn’t get through Revenue and Customs after his visit to the UN.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister has received an array of items from rugs to bowls. Berlusconi gave Cameron some ‘Ties’- perhaps that little yellow and blue number that we all know and love was an Italian idea. Unlike Blair who bought things on the cheap from the state (his ‘New Dawn’ was not what was originally thought) David Cameron has bought back an Apple iPad at £429 – the same price that it would cost if he had bought it straight from Apple. Indeed he has not bought many things – ‘books’ and the iPad, whilst Blair took home a vast array of goodies, including 8 timepieces and numerous items of jewellery.
The other document that has been published contains details about the ‘hospitality’ that ministers have received. The letters ‘BBC’ appear rather too much for my liking. There have been a number of ‘lunches’ and ‘dinners’ put on for politicians (paid for by us) by the BBC (er… also paid for by us). Lets hope that these took place in the restaurant in the House of Commons which is, yes – you guessed it, subsidised by us. Lord Strathclyde received tickets to ‘Over the Rainbow’ from the Beeb - but Nick Clegg had to watch that one on TV, he didn’t receive any ‘hospitality’.
The list may not be exhaustive. Ministers can keep certain ‘trivial’ items, and we do not know the value of these declared items, only that they are worth more than £140.
Anyhow, this new drive to transparency has to be a good thing. If nothing else it may mean that the Prime Minister won’t be given the same present twice (cough… Mayor of New York… cough).